Friday, April 10, 2015

We're Rich

Microsoft’s global tax chief Bill Sample, under investigation by the Australian Taxation Office, admitted that huge revenue figures from Australia were booked in Singapore, where the corporate tax rate is capped at 17 per cent compared to Australia’s 30 per cent. Microsoft's A$2 billion of revenue generated in Australia, including from Windows and Xbox products, ended up in Singapore.

RMIT University tax expert Professor Sinclair Davidson explained how the round tripping mechanism was perfectly legal: “When you buy a Microsoft product, the intellectual property is registered in Singapore. The Australian arm of the company then pays a royalty fee to the Singapore holding company, effectively transferring the profit to a country where the tax rate is half that of Australia.’’

Google Australia’s managing director Maile Carnegie had nothing to hide too. She said: “This is the way the global tax system works," confirming that the company’s lucrative advertising revenue was booked in Singapore but could not say how much, citing US disclosure laws.

With all those juicy numbers fattening up the balance sheets, and minimal direct or indirect overhead costs incurred in country, shouldn't our productivity rate be shooting up the roof?

Will the guy who debunked the 450,000 figure of worshippers who filed past the casket in 4 days please fire up your calculator again?

10 comments:

  1. Hahaha ...that last paragraph should be expanded here too.

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  2. "Muddy Waters, the investment research firm helmed by Carson Block, just announced a new short thesis — Singaporean commodities trading firm, Noble Group Limited.
    ........Now, the last time Muddy Waters took on a Singapore listed trading firm, Olam, the country’s state investment firm, Temasek, bailed Olam out. "

    http://www.businessinsider.sg/muddy-waters-short-on-noble-group-lmtd-2015-4/#.VScxnpPiOFs

    No problem.
    PAP government is very rich.
    Can spend money on a lot of things except hospitals and Singaporeans.
    Cannot spend money like education on Singaporeans.
    That would be subsidizing Singaporeans.
    But it's okay to give freebies to Aliens.

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  3. PAP Government is SUPER RICH.

    It had just awarded a million Sin Dollars Incentives to the Two Duopoly Public Transport Opetators namely; SBS Transit and SMRT.
    The Said Operators are making tens of millions each year in revenues.

    patriot

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  4. What's wrong with making more money? Good for GDP figures and Ministerial pay. To heel with the GINI co-efficient. So what if we are fast gaining an international reputation for being a hub for dirty money and despots?

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  5. well, I rather think if there is a way to goose the productivity figures, the scholars (never mind they cannot extract a Sim card from h/p) will find it. the fact that there is no growth while more and more google sales are booked in red dot tells you the real sectors of the local economy are really seeing negative productivity growth. quite why that is so is a real mystery, I hazard a guess: temasek-linked companies?!

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  6. Indeed. What's wrong with making more money, and making ourselves "more competitive"? SGP is not just happy with being a tax haven, but becoming a bigger tax haven.

    Why else do you think all these years we hit our GDP?
    Why else do you think our productivity has been zero?
    Why else do you think we have casinos and races where mega deals are struck?
    Why else do you think we went from 3rd to 1st world?

    You think is because of some myth-making guru who has relatively young years of running country let alone civilisation, is so superb at running a democratic country of 3.5m?

    What does it mean for the citizens here?
    The MNCs and corporation are kings, not you.
    You will tolerate more hiring and foreigners here.
    You will tolerate the high cost of living as a result of these increased demand.
    You will tolerate their cultural imposition and welcome them.
    You will tolerate with less space and more crowdedness
    You will tolerate with less civil rights but more civil curtailment because of more littering, rioting, heckling, crimes etc
    You will compete more with them on jobs, schools, trains, cars and hospital beds/care

    http://www.smh.com.au/business/singapore-ireland-top-havens-for-multinational-tax-dodgers-20140430-37hzi.html#ixzz30XDjKTpO

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  7. Rich as a country. But poor as a people.
    No identity, no soul, no creativity, no innovation.
    When you have only 1 press and 1 version of propaganda controlled singly by 1 dominant party, culture and arts censorship etc, forget about excelling as a people. Our youngsters are already loosing out to the fast catching China & India youths and new generation because we are force-fed and brainwashed by those Ministers like Lawrence, Yaccob and Warren Fernandez. There is a big dissonance between the reality and make-believe. Eventually the gap will be so big and huge, it will blow up in the face of LHL and the PAP. Which might as well.

    If anyone who has access to their programs will be worried how our youth are greatly disadvantaged by the controlling maniacs of the MIW.

    The next decades will be the same gdp and immigration story plus security bogeyman. When the bubble burst, it will be cruel.

    Ho Kwon Ping has a very good assessment and take on the situation.

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  8. Boom! Hong Kong stocks have surged over the past two days, as investors flood the market with wads of cash.

    http://money.cnn.com/2015/04/09/investing/hong-kong-stocks-surge/

    Very soon we will see PAP and PM Lee oversee Singapore's return back into a financial village in Asia.
    Do you think they will reduce their million dollar salary demands?

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  9. How will offering lower corporate tax benefit the local economy?
    How does it help local workers?
    Does the business help develop skills of local workers?
    How much skill & knowledge is being transferred?
    Who are the beneficiaries?

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  10. 'Trickle down' economics doesn't work. LKY, Reagan, Thatcher all follow the same template of neoliberalism, selling out the people to business interests and cronies.

    Lee Hsien Loong had explicitly declared that the country would be better off if a few more billionaires set up shop and/or parked their money here. That is all you need to know regarding where his true loyalty lies.

    It is time to put a stop to this self-serving, parasitic evil.

    ReplyDelete